An Empirical Study Of English Preposition Teaching Based On Image-Schema

Image schema can help learners to understand the internal system and structure of English prepositions,so as to systematically grasp the extension relation between various senses of the prepositions.This empirical study aims to explore the effects of image-schema-based instruction on English preposition learning.The present study addresses the following questions:(1)What are the effects of image-schema-based instruction on students’ comprehension of English prepositions?(2)What are the effects of image-schema-based instruction on students’ production of English prepositions?(3)What are the effects of image-schema-based instruction in the long-term memory?(4)How do students evaluate the image-schema-based instruction on English preposition learning?The participants of the experiment are 74 senior two students from a high school in Changsha.They were divided into control group(CG)and experimental group(EG),with 35 participants in the CG and 39 participants in the EG.The EG received image-schema-based instruction to learn English prepositions.Both classes were taught by the same English teacher,and the English proficiency of the participants is almost at the same level.The experiment consists of 5 phases: pretest,treatment,immediate post-test,delayed post-test and questionnaire.The whole experiment lasts two months.The three test papers are composed of the receptive vocabulary test(multiple-choice task)and the productive vocabulary test(fill-in-blank task).There are 50 questions in total,with a total score of 100 points.All the data are analyzed by Excel 2010 and SPSS 21.0.This study finds out that:(1)In the receptive vocabulary test,the EG improved significantly in the immediate post-test.This shows that the image-schema-based instruction is beneficial to the comprehension of English prepositions.(2)In the productive vocabulary test,the EG improved dramatically in the immediate post-test as well.This means that the image-schema-based instruction has a positive effect on the production of English prepositions.(3)The EG outperformed the CG in the delayed post-test.This confirms that the image-schema-based instruction helps to prolong the retention of English prepositions.(4)Students believed that the image-schema-based instruction increased their interests in English prepositionlearning,and helped them to better understand the connection between various senses of English prepositions.They hoped to adopt the method to other polysemy learning.In conclusion,it is found that the image-schema-based instruction has a positive effect on English preposition teaching,helping to prolong the retention of English prepositions,as well as stimulating students’ interests in English prepositions.The conclusion shows some pedagogical implications to English preposition teaching.